Hi all, I've just pressed our first cider a week or so ago from bramleys in our own small orchard. We kept the apples for quite a while to ensure they developed some decent sugar before pressing. Incidentally the trees are about 45 years old which I think might have contributed to the below?
I used pectolase, tannins and camden tablets immediately and also slightly reduced the acidity from 3.2 to 3.4 ph. 24 hours later I added yeast and nutrient which doesn't exactly make sense with the below..
By the next day, after waiting for the campden tablets to go, I noticed I had a brown cap developing on top of the cider in the larger vessel (200l). As of today I have a strong brown top on the cider, the lees are clearly visible and the cider in the middle looks very clear.
Does this mean I have the makings of a keeved cider here? Do I now need to consider racking it at some point before the cap disappears? When? Should I just ignore it as I assume it will just disappear over time and ferment normally?
The other vessel I have is fermenting normally.
I added yeast to both vessels, the only difference was the larger vessel was in a room at 15 deg, the smaller one was pressed earlier and started off at about 6 deg C for a couple of days before I controlled the temperature in the room. The smaller vessel appears to be fermenting much quicker compared to the one with the cap on it, by a factor of about a dozen burps to one - lol
Thoughts would be appreciated!
I used pectolase, tannins and camden tablets immediately and also slightly reduced the acidity from 3.2 to 3.4 ph. 24 hours later I added yeast and nutrient which doesn't exactly make sense with the below..
By the next day, after waiting for the campden tablets to go, I noticed I had a brown cap developing on top of the cider in the larger vessel (200l). As of today I have a strong brown top on the cider, the lees are clearly visible and the cider in the middle looks very clear.
Does this mean I have the makings of a keeved cider here? Do I now need to consider racking it at some point before the cap disappears? When? Should I just ignore it as I assume it will just disappear over time and ferment normally?
The other vessel I have is fermenting normally.
I added yeast to both vessels, the only difference was the larger vessel was in a room at 15 deg, the smaller one was pressed earlier and started off at about 6 deg C for a couple of days before I controlled the temperature in the room. The smaller vessel appears to be fermenting much quicker compared to the one with the cap on it, by a factor of about a dozen burps to one - lol
Thoughts would be appreciated!
I'm keeping it at a constant 15 deg C, but it appears to be fermenting quite fast with the speidel air locks moving every few seconds and huge numbers of bubbles. 15 deg C seems to be the best temp from reading but should I lower it? I'm looking for a slow fermentation really to get the best out of it c. 3 months, then racking it off for another three months or so air tight. Any suggestions to tweak it or leave as it is? I will start measuring it this week just waiting for a pipette to arrive to sample it. It started life at around 1044 SG.
